There are a few classic Disneyland attractions that are so iconic that any trip to the park should include them. More than 40 years after it opened Pirates of the Caribbean, while having undergone many changes, is still one of the park’s most popular attractions. Any ride that old is going to occasionally have some problems, and one group discovered that when their boat actually began to take on water. Sometimes a pirate’s life kinda sucks I guess.
A TikTok has gone viral that shows a group on board a boat on Pirates of the Caribbean when the attraction stalls after their boat begins to actually sink. It actually required calling Disneyland emergency services to “rescue” the group, the good news was nobody had to go too far to get to dry land. Check it out.
@justnjames_ ♬ Disneyland and DCA ride songs - Kelly
The wildest thing about the whole ordeal is how close this group was to getting off the boat anyway. This video is taken after the ride has ended and the boat is on its way back to the loading and unloading area. If the boat had made it only a few more yards they would have been able to exit normally. According to the video the group was stuck on the boat, in sight of the queue, for an hour. While Disneyland wouldn’t have wanted them to just climb out, they certainly could have done so.
Pirates of the Caribbean is a ride that certainly can get you wet, there are a couple of significant drops that can give you a minor splash if they hit just right, but it’s really not supposed to get your shoes this wet. Of course, the people in this video are actually in about the least trouble. If they were stuck on the boat for an hour, so was everybody else on the ride, and getting everybody else off the ride was a lot more complex. Hopefully, they weren’t also dealing with taking on water.
Theme park attractions are full of moving parts that are constantly moving, and there’s basically no way that you can avoid the occasional problem. And when that problem involves a water ride, it’s going to mean possibly getting wet. We’ve seen Jungle Cruise boats sink and the boats from the now-closed Splash Mountain at Disney World sink as well, and people get stuck on It’s a Small World for extended periods due to malfunctions. Although, in that case, the worst thing that usually happens is you have to listen to the "It's A Small World" song again and again for far too long.
Pirates of the Caribbean has been generally up and running since this video was posted so it does look like this was just a random malfunction that has been fixed.
